Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the financial support required by the arcade sector to support its re-opening when it is safe to do so.

The government recognises that the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be extremely challenging for businesses, including in the arcades sector.

The government has introduced a number of unprecedented financial packages to help to ease pressures and help businesses navigate through this crisis. We have provided support for millions of jobs and businesses by extending the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme until the end of April 2021. Struggling businesses will also have until the end of March 2021 to access the government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.

On 5 January, the Chancellor announced £4.6 billion in new lockdown grants for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses worth up to £9,000 per property to help businesses through the Spring. A further £594 million of discretionary funding through the Additional Restrictions Grant has also been made available to support other impacted businesses. This comes in addition to £1.1 billion discretionary funding for Local Authorities through Local Restriction Support Grants worth up to to £3,000 a month.

We are continuing to work with organisations in the land-based gambling sector to understand what they need and how we may be able to support them.